Britons spend eight years of their lives on housework

Reporter

Brits will spend nearly eight years of their lives doing household chores, a study has found.

Cleaning, ironing, food shop shopping and even walking the dog means the average adult spends just under three hours a day on domestic tasks.

This amounts to 20 hours and 55 minutes a week - the equivalent of 45 days a year or seven years and 10 months of the average adult lifetime.

But despite the staggering amount of time already spent on chores, one in five say they would do more if they weren’t so busy.

And one in four went as far as to say they ‘enjoy’ doing the housework.

Jenny Questier from cleaning experts Jeyes, which commissioned the research, said: “A few hours of chores here and there might not seem too bad, but when you add it all up over time, it amounts to a large chunk of our lives.

“As a nation, we’re known for being quite house proud and as a result we are often found cleaning or generally tidying up our homes and gardens.

“But it means our spare time is taken up with doing these little jobs to make sure our home and garden is looking its best.”

The study of 2,000 adults found that cooking takes up the most time, accounting for four hours and 13 minutes each week.

Washing up and cleaning the kitchen takes up to an hour and 38 minutes a week, while just over an hour is spent cleaning the bathroom.

Another hour a week is spent ironing, while vacuuming takes up to an hour and seven minutes and laundry accounts for one hour and 42 minutes.

As well as other household chores, Brits also spend an average of one hour and 11 minutes a week walking the dog and one hour and 40 minutes food shopping.

But it’s not just the inside of the home which takes up so much of our time with around an hour and a half spent washing the car each month and an hour and 26 minutes pottering around in the garden.

Sweeping, cleaning and pressure washing the driveway and patio also accounts for three hours a month.

It also emerged that cleaning the oven is the most disliked chore, followed by washing and cleaning the windows, vacuuming the stairs, dusting and removing mould from the shower tiles and grouting.

Defrosting the freezer, ironing shirts and removing hair and dirt from a plug hole also feature, with unblocking a sink and cleaning the skirting boards completing the top 10.

Researchers also found 68 per cent of people spend more time on indoor chores than they do on outdoor ones, and 78 per cent of people have been put off gardening if the weather looks bad.

But while 47 per cent clean regularly anyway, 84 per cent will go to more effort if they have a visitor coming around.

A lucky one in 20 even said they currently employ a cleaner to do most of the chores for the, with another 49 per cent saying they would do so if they had unlimited funds.